One year old startup Imprint Payments Inc. co-founded by Gaurav Ahuja, Daragh Murphy and Michael Pechman has the support of top and very notable investors in its recent $38 million Series A round. The branded payments and rewards startup offers a branded rewards card that has no credit inquiries, no interest, and no fees.
Kleiner Perkins co-led the round with Stripe, that included participation of leading funds, fintech companies, and individuals: Thrive Capital, Affirm, Allen & Co., Late Show host James Corden, Senior Chairman of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein, plus the CEOs of leading consumer brands. The recent raise brings Imprint’s total raise to $53 million.
The company is strategically positioned to distinguish its product from competitors. Seeing that any brand can build its own end-to-end experience with little time and investment, Imprint is separating itself from others through its commerce platform, apps and APIs. Their technology gives their brand clients much more by integrating their payment method at check-outs or anywhere else through its online or app experience. Imprint is now empowering brands to build customer loyalty.
“The branded-payment space has not changed since co-branded credit cards were introduced in the 90s and no longer meets the needs of modern brands and modern customers,” states Murphy. “We see an opportunity to provide a branded payment service that reduces payments costs for brands, while empowering them to offer their customers a brand-centric payments experience and rich rewards”.
Murphy co-founded Imprint with Thrive Capital partner Gaurav Ahuja and Michael Pechman following his tenures as Vice President of Operations and Strategy at WeWork and Junior Partner at McKinsey & Co. Pechman, joins them in launching an innovative brand payments and rewards startup following his positions as Portfolio Director at Thrive Capital and Product Manager at Google.
The three leaders see the technology they built for its brand payments and rewards card as a “generational shift away from credit cards”. Their card addresses a very significant industry pain point—the rising cost of acquiring new customers that brands are now facing. With a necessary shift to customer loyalty, Imprint gives brand’s a seamless and cost-effective platform that boosts retention and increases the lifetime value of every customer.
By establishing a new payments process, Imprint gives ownership to brands who are able to offer greater rewards for customer loyalty. The savings from payment processing costs fund the rewards, giving customers 5% back every time they shop at their favorite brands and 1% back when they shop at other brands.
“Imprint is focused on shifting the payments paradigm to positive-sum for brands and their customers. We empower great brands to cut out the middlemen, pointing economic value traditionally captured by legacy banks back to brands and their customers. This results in customers who are more loyal and higher spenders,” says Gaurav Ahuja, chairman & co-founder of Imprint and Partner at Thrive Capital.
The branded payment & rewards startup having gained critical funding from such a broad range of well-known investors is now taking on the brand payments card industry by storm. Both brands and consumers are receiving significant benefits as “brands can own how their customers pay”, while customers receive “customized benefits and experiences” which in turn create long-lasting loyalty for brands”.
